French trade meets at AFCOV annual workshop

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The French association's annual workshop stimulated thoughtful debate from all sectors of the industry

The Association Francaise du Commerce du Voyageur (AFCOV) held its annual workshop on March 7, with representatives from French airports, airlines, ferries, concessionaires and suppliers attending the event. The day was moderated by AFCOV president Alain Falque and featured presentations from several industry figures on the evolution of the local travel-retail trade.

The first part of the day included presentations from Philippe Lagard who represents AFCOV on the board of the European Travel Retail Council, and French retailer Aelia president and AFCOV treasurer Michel Pérol, who talked about the performance indicated by association's most recent quarterly index in the context of the past few years.

In the afternoon executives from suppliers and concessionaires presented briefings on their business and categories. Speakers included André de Bausset for Dior, Francois Van Aal from Rémy Cointreau, Vincent Viellefond from Altadis, Marc Dumensy from Davidoff and Richard Geneste from HFP Phénix.

Finally, Frank Gray from Concession Planning International led a session on how to maximise the performance of commercial areas.